Ships Take to Arctic Ocean as Sea Ice Melts

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IN FLIGHT - APRIL 21: From an altitude of 500 feet a photographer captures an image of an iceberg from the cargo ramp of a Coast Guard Hercules C-130 Aircraft April 21, 2003 in the north Atlantic Ocean. The International Ice Patrol flies over the north Atlantic searching for icebergs every other week during iceberg season, which is from February to July. The crew records the iceberg's shape, size and location in an effort to prevent collisions between ships and icebergs. The patrol, organized by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by 18 nations, has searched the waters since the year following the Titanic disaster. (Photo by Harry Gerwin/Getty Images)

The search for the Northwest Passage was once the preserve of explorers hoping to find a lucrative new trade route linking Europe with the Far East.

Now the decline in the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean is turning their failed dream into a reality.

Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grímsson recently claimed that the route was becoming a "trans-Arctic Panama Canal," the paper said.

Der Spiegel reported that new ships are being designed to cope with icebergs on the journey.

The MV Nordic Barents is due to arrive in the Chinese port of Lianyungang after a 3,500-mile journey through the Arctic Ocean from the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, the newspaper said. A Russian icebreaker sent to protect the ship, which was carrying iron ore concentrate, was not needed with broken ice floes only passing nearby twice.

"The nuclear icebreaker was more for decoration than anything else ... and we didn't have to stop once," Felix Tschudi, a spokesman for the shipping company which chartered the freighter, told Der Spiegel.

Tschudi said the MV Nordic Barents's journey time was half what it would have been. "That saved us 15 days at sea," Tschudi added.

The Russian tanker Baltika, carrying 70,000 tons of gas condensate, also traveled a few weeks ago from the Russian port of Murmansk to the Chinese city of Ningbo through the Arctic without incident, the newspaper added.

However, the danger of sea ice remains.

"Even during the summer months, you have to expect isolated ice floes," climate researcher Lawson Brigham, a former icebreaker captain who co-authored a comprehensive study of the new Arctic sea routes, told Der Spiegel.

Plans for two new nuclear icebreakers were announced at an Arctic conference in Moscow last week with an adjustable draft which enables them to operate in shallow waters, it reported.

The dangers of sea ice were illustrated in a crash between two tankers in July off the coast of the New Siberian Islands, Der Spiegel said. The tankers, both loaded with 13,300 tons of diesel, collided when the lead ship slowed down because of large amounts of ice.

The Murmansk Shipping Company, which owns the ships, said the accident caused only minor dents and was "no emergency," according to Der Spiegel.

Brigham warned against too much optimism about the potential for the route, because of the unpredictable nature of the sea ice. He does not foresee large numbers of vessels traveling between Europe and the Far East.

"What will really increase is the removal of huge amounts of raw materials from the Arctic," he told the newspaper.